German foreign minister Johann Wadephul visits the Vatican to discuss Ukraine
Wadephul meets Sant'Egidio, Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher; talks expected to focus on the war in Ukraine now in its fifth year.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul is in the Vatican today for meetings centred on the war in Ukraine, officials said.
In the morning Wadephul is scheduled to meet representatives of the Catholic humanitarian organisation Sant'Egidio, and will then be received by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state and the Holy See's second‑ranking official.
Talks with Vatican diplomacy on Ukraine
He will also hold talks with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican's Secretary for Relations with States, who effectively serves as the Holy See's foreign minister. One expected focus of the discussions is Russia's war against Ukraine, which has now entered its fifth year.
Pope Lav XIV recently called for renewed international efforts to begin negotiations to end the war, urging leaders of Russia, Ukraine and other countries to sit together at a negotiating table. Gallagher likewise urged "real negotiations" with international support during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow at the end of August.
Wadephul met Lavrov on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York less than a week ago, but those talks produced no concrete results. In the afternoon Wadephul will travel on to Slovenia, where in Ljubljana he is due to meet Foreign Minister Tone Kajzer and conservative Prime Minister Janez Janša.
Photo: press material from the event
